There are only two chapters in this book that are based more on belief than on evidence. The first is this one, about the origin of souls. The second is the next chapter about God Himself.
What is a Human Soul?
As you read on, you will learn that God is the one element of Spirit for whom there is no direct evidence. His presence, however, is implied by the evidence, and while this chapter is based on inferences, they are the most rational inferences that I could make regarding the structural integrity of the spiritual world. Without God, there can be no coherent structure to heaven.
I refer to God as HIM simply to denote his “personhood”. God is neither male nor female. He is our father and our mother. He gave birth to all of us, and then set us free to find our way back to him. God is not A spirit. He IS Spirit!
Human souls are tiny “sparks” temporarily struck off from God’s great consciousness. Each soul represents a tiny piece of God’s intelligence. God is not a static entity. He is a living being and continues to grow through us. When He created us, He invested a part of himself in our earthly investment bank, and it is our job to return to Him with interest.
Note: Animals, especially the higher animals undoubtedly have souls too. Your dog, your cat or any cherished pet is as much a metaphysical being as you are. Humans, however, have rational minds with a firm understanding of time, and this allows us to contemplate a future as well as a perpetual present. No other animal can anticipate death, or what lies beyond it. For this reason, and to avoid making an enormously complex subject even more complex, I have decided to limit this book to a discussion of what I believe is the destiny of the human soul.
This isn’t meant to denigrate the souls of animals. While cherished pets occupy the human heaven with their previous owners, I believe that all animal species have their own respective heavens. By logical necessity, however, their realms must be structured in very different ways from our own. As we progress, you will learn that the human heaven is based on the moral constructs of spiritual light and spiritual darkness, which we earthlings generally interpret to be good and evil. This sort of duality would be meaningless to a bird, or a cat.
Other definitions of the human soul
The concept of the “soul” versus the “spirit” differs from tradition to tradition. According to Genesis 2:7 God created the human body out of dust and then breathed the soul into it. In Jewish theology, the term “soul” means the spark of Godliness that makes a person, an animal or even an object something other than a pile of dust while the “spirit” refers to the higher qualities that God breathed into the soul. Most traditions see the soul as a term for the spirit that animates the body. The most modern interpretation of the soul is involved with the concept of reincarnation, which is itself subject to some disagreement, and is discussed in Chapter 21 and 22. Like many people, I will be using the terms “soul” and “spirit” interchangeably.